There have been several earnest and helpful efforts to make sense of what happened last week, why it happened, and what it suggests will happen. Five pieces I have found in one way or another illuminating:

But in my judgment all of these analyses fail to capture the deep distinctions of felt culture and fundamental worldview that differentiate most Americans from most Arabs and increasingly divide Muslim from Muslim.

I’m not up to the task either. But in Sunday’s New York Times there were two long pieces — purposefully twinned — that describe a crucial shift in Western culture over the last 100 years that lends a helpful lens to contemporary US-Arab relations.

There is absolutely no mention of Benghazi or Cairo or Islam or US foreign policy. The articles deal with how high art could once be profoundly shocking to sophisticated Western audiences in a way that is unimaginable today. The gulf between my grandfather hearing Stravinsky and my own reaction begins to explain the difference between today’s Times Square and Tahrir Square.

If you can feel the weight and meaning of this generational shift in the West, you will have a toe-hold on understanding the complexities that last week exploded in death, injury and destruction across a good portion of the Arab world and beyond.

My first premise is that the WESTERN WORLD largely committed suicide in the 20th Century and in particular the First World War. That assumes of course that suicide like pregnancy can be partially accomplished with human or human endeavor.

Second, Islam is a product of WESTERN CIVILIZATION and its culture. So Islam is now committing suicide just trying to keep up with the rest of WESTERN CIV.

And interestingly much of the world has adopted WESTERN NORMS that are suicidal in their prospects. Well not a hopeful picture to me but perhaps others find cause for optimism.

Is life after death a fateful notion for any religion when lined up with rationale thought?

We seem headed in the WEST towards a last CRUSADE and wonder if that is the APOCOYPSE that some seem to dream about and desire?